The Absent ShakespeareFairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1994 - 174 pages Building on recent textual studies of King Lear and Hamlet, which compare Folio and Quarto differences, Mirsky sees them not just as an opportunity to view the playwright revising toward more skillful staging, greater complexity of plot, and ambiguity of character. The process of revision also exposes a personal Shakespeare. Differences between Folio and Quarto texts show the growing sophistication of Shakespeare's dramatic craft and reveal how the playwright changed as he matured. The book presents a dramatist maturing in time, grappling with incest, patricide, filicide, erotic love, and the inevitability of death. It finds this naked Shakespeare in Macbeth and The Tempest as well, expressed in the riddles of the plays. The author refers not only to the text of Shakespeare but also to the plays in performance - suggesting how the actor's reading and interpretation lay bare the intentions of the playwright on the stage. |
Contents
Bibliographical Note | 9 |
The Itch Revises | 33 |
Hamlets Father | 47 |
Copyright | |
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action anger answer appears audience become begins break Caliban calls changes character child Claudius Claudius's comes conscience Cordelia court dark daughter dead death desire drama draw dream echo Edgar Edited eyes face fact fair father fear feel final flesh Folio follow Gertrude Ghost given gives grave Hamlet hand hear heart Horatio husband King Lear King's Lady Macbeth Laertes latter Lear's leaves lines live look Lord madness magic mean mind Miranda mock moment mother murder nature never Ophelia perhaps play playwright plot points Poor Press Prince Prospero question reading reality reason reference remark revenge revision scene Second Quarto seems seen sense sexual Shake Shakespeare sisters sleep soliloquy speaks speech spirit stage suggests Tempest thou thought tion tragedy turns understand University wife wish witches York